Ahh Spidey, I've missed you old buddy, old pal. We all love a Spider-Man game, as they were the best superhero games... until the Batman Arkham series showed up. It's not even worrying when a Spider-Man movie game is released as Spider-Man 2 was arguably the best SM game around. The Amazing Spider-Man movie however, sucked. The game, not so much.
What I liked about the game, was that it wasn't just a game of the movie, it sort of expanded on it. It seemed to take place straight after the movie, so it was all new missions and not playing levels from the movie. The story was about all new human cross species, just like the Lizard. This was great as the game tied in Rhino and Scorpion, some of Spider-Man's popular villians. As it was a movie game, the graphics were awful, but, Spider-Man himself looked great, his suit sparkled in a dull game, the voice actor of Peter Parker did a great job too. The game looked great in daylight, the sun and lighting looked wonderful, as did the night, it's a shame they didn't really try with the other character models.
There's plenty to do outside the story, albeit mostly boring. There's time trials, saving civilians, secret lab missions and a lot more. It's all repetitive though and only worth doing to get better upgrades. The combat is pretty decent, it's a poor man's Batman Arkham combat, but that combat is so good, even a shoddy version is decent. Even though Spider-Man isn't often stealthy, you can stealthily take out enemies and it's always good to use stealth to make it easier for yourself. The problem was stealth takedowns could be really slow animations, causing you to be detected and making stealth attacks utterly useless.
The camera angles were awful, Spider-Man is very fast at swinging, climbing and fighting, the camera just can't keep up and is flailing about. The hard difficulty wasn't too bad, it would just take a full minute for your health to recover. There was nothing worse swinging around in circles, surrounded by enemies, waiting for your health to recover and then dying. It wasn't really hard, it was just ridiculous trying to recover your health. Ninety percent of the game had you traversing the sewers or laboratories, you'd be constantly in either if these and felt you'd been there many times, there was no diversity in where the game took you. The open city boss battles were probably the best bits, as there were seemingly no limits on how far you could go in the city during them, the cross species boss fights always felt the same, just in a different enclosed area.
This game causes a lot of frustration too, constant indicators about a comic book collectable being insight, as there was 700 of these atrocities, it was made even worse by the fact you'd press the button to fly directly to it, only to find out you pressed it too late and Spider-Man would start flying somewhere completely off track. This was the same for attempting stealth, it would suddenly switch to web strike, which would alert all enemies. When completing side missions, the screen would fade to black and load you near where you started the mission, then sometimes it wouldn't load you and you could freely play, it was annoying not knowing whether the game would let you start travelling to your next destination or if it was going to cut you off and load you, it was so inconsistent.
There were some nice features though, the web rush was cool, it would let you slow time and let you choose where to send Spidey. The beautiful red and blue suit would rip and tear the more combat you entered and you could always repair your suit by going back to the safehouse. Stan Lee even made a cameo in the game and was even a playable costume, why wouldn't you want to web-sling as Stan Lee? However, there were more problems, long loading, phone call story dialogue repeated after every death until you proceeded with the story, bad checkpoints that lead to unskippabke cutscenes, Spider-Man not casting a new web to continue swinging no matter how many times you pressed him too only for him to decide to as he practically swung down to the ground.
Spider-Man games are always something I enjoy, I grew up with him and Spider-Man on the PS1 was the first game I ever completed. I'm very happy to see Spider-Man is still around in the video game industry and I'm very excited for the upcoming PS4 game. Movie games are never really impressive and this was a game of a pretty poor movie, but the game took a nice turn by continuing the story of the movie. I'm definitely gonna give the Amazing Spider-Man 2 game a try as the movie was also better than the first too.
6.5/10
Sunday 30 October 2016
Sunday 23 October 2016
Dead Rising 2: Off the Record (Xbox 360)
Dead Rising 2: Off the Record is a reimagining of Dead Rising 2, where Frank West from the original DR is the playable character over Chuck Greene. Released in 2011, only a number of months after DR2s release, it became the fourth DR2 game following Case Zero, Case West and the original second game. The story is practically the same, just with some slight changes, most of them I actually preferred too.
For those that played DR2 will know there's not a lot of difference, besides playing as Frank and some story changes, the only new features are a new area to explore, challenges and free roam. The new area is in the form of a space theme park, it's a decent sized area and even has some mini carnival games to have fun with. Free mode explains itself, you can't do any of the story during it, but you can freely run around and kill all the zombies you want. Challenges feature in the free roam mode and can be do single-player or co-operatively.
What's a great improvement here is if you play coop, your partner plays as Chuck, so together you're Frank and Chuck. In DR2 you both played as Chuck. It was great to see the game star Frank, he's the star character in the DR franchise and was well performed again and slotted right in as Chuck's replacement. Once again, you are rewarded with more story if you complete all the cases, Overtime Mode makes a return and gives the real ending of the story when you finish it. Some character changes I appreciated too, I was glad with pretty much all the story changes from the second game, apart from a ridiculous and out of place boss fight. Chuck Greene featured in the story too, he became a psychopath and was a stand in for the biker psychopath from DR2. It was so well done, made sense of how he went crazy and explained Chuck's part in the story. It was sad to see how the mighty Chuck had fallen though.
The cases were pretty much exactly the same, everything we had already done in the second game and it felt cheap that a new game was released with nothing new in the story. A couple of glitches appeared, as I did a drop kick to Tk, he charged at the same time and I started to endlessly fall through the map, thankfully my coop partner could still fight TK and finished the fight. In the challenges, you were given times to get the gold medal. One challenge had us reach the marker in 45 seconds, we got there on 44 and a gold medal was shown, then when we were returned to the game, only a silver medal was given.
The game is practically just a cash in, but I enjoyed it, mainly because DR2 was already a good game. It was great to play as Frank as we knew him and the story changes were welcomed. For a fair price I'd recommend it and if you never played the original DR2, then maybe skip it and get this as the story changes are an improvement.
7.6/10
For those that played DR2 will know there's not a lot of difference, besides playing as Frank and some story changes, the only new features are a new area to explore, challenges and free roam. The new area is in the form of a space theme park, it's a decent sized area and even has some mini carnival games to have fun with. Free mode explains itself, you can't do any of the story during it, but you can freely run around and kill all the zombies you want. Challenges feature in the free roam mode and can be do single-player or co-operatively.
What's a great improvement here is if you play coop, your partner plays as Chuck, so together you're Frank and Chuck. In DR2 you both played as Chuck. It was great to see the game star Frank, he's the star character in the DR franchise and was well performed again and slotted right in as Chuck's replacement. Once again, you are rewarded with more story if you complete all the cases, Overtime Mode makes a return and gives the real ending of the story when you finish it. Some character changes I appreciated too, I was glad with pretty much all the story changes from the second game, apart from a ridiculous and out of place boss fight. Chuck Greene featured in the story too, he became a psychopath and was a stand in for the biker psychopath from DR2. It was so well done, made sense of how he went crazy and explained Chuck's part in the story. It was sad to see how the mighty Chuck had fallen though.
The cases were pretty much exactly the same, everything we had already done in the second game and it felt cheap that a new game was released with nothing new in the story. A couple of glitches appeared, as I did a drop kick to Tk, he charged at the same time and I started to endlessly fall through the map, thankfully my coop partner could still fight TK and finished the fight. In the challenges, you were given times to get the gold medal. One challenge had us reach the marker in 45 seconds, we got there on 44 and a gold medal was shown, then when we were returned to the game, only a silver medal was given.
The game is practically just a cash in, but I enjoyed it, mainly because DR2 was already a good game. It was great to play as Frank as we knew him and the story changes were welcomed. For a fair price I'd recommend it and if you never played the original DR2, then maybe skip it and get this as the story changes are an improvement.
7.6/10
Monday 17 October 2016
FIFA 17: The Journey (Xbox One)
As a FIFA player for over 15 years, a story mode is something I've always wanted, but never thought I'd see the day it arrived. FIFA 17 is the one they finally thought to give it a shot with, after Fight Night Champion gave it a crack in 2011. Alex Hunter, the grandson of the great, Jim Hunter, is a 17 year-old looking to make it in the big leagues. With the choice to sign for any Premier League club, you get the chance to make him a rising star for your favourite prem team.
The game has cutscenes that tell Hunters life and they look great. Powered by the Frostbite Engine, it looks real and the lip syncing is great, an odd plus for a FIFA game. There are a number of characters that show up, Hunter's family and people who pop up in his footballing life. Some of these are portrayed brilliantly, particularly Hunter's mother, Butler, the coach at your chosen team and Hunter's lifelong friend, Gareth Walker. Their performances seem so genuine and real.
The game works out as a more in depth Be A Pro, but you can also play as the whole team, which I found much more preferable. Hunter is aiming to get into the first team and an eventual starter. After the rise of fellow teammate, Walker, Hunter is then made to leave on loan to the Championship. So, you end up playing for two teams, which I didn't see coming but liked it as it made sense. Hunter is portrayed well, but it can be so hard to listen to his cringey dialogue, especially during the post-match interviews.
You get to pick which position to play as, you only get the choice of attacking positions. However, depending on what the default team is, the team you sign for may not play your position. I picked CAM and my chosen team didn't play with one, but my on loan team did, suffice to say I enjoyed being on loan, rather than playing for my favourite team. The weaker squads were always getting played too, third choice goalkeepers and the youth striker would play ahead of the star players. All the teams you played against had their star players on, which made it feel unfair. Williams was another footballing personality in the game, he featured often in cutscenes and in the social media tweets praising him and Hunter's partnership together, I think the whole time I was in the same squad as him, we played together twice. It was the same with Harry Kane, who was the big signing your team made, but he didn't feature with me once.
You can do training skills to improve your overall stats and you get punished by skipping them, you can lose your starting eleven place. I wanted to check my personal stats, like my goals and assists, but I didn't think you could. Turns out they were hidden by what I thought was an Ultimate Team advert, but after you looked at your UT rewards you could see your personal stats. I thought that Butler should've just been the manager of whatever team you chose, the real life manager features but never says anything, I know they couldn't get the real voices, but Butler acts like the manager, it just fits better. Also, when going for the league title, a random woman in a suit entered the dressing room and gave a big speech, Butler and the real manager just stood there, I had no idea who she was, she just entered, spoke and left, no one even told us who she was.
I think we were partly mis-sold, there weren't really choices. I was expecting choices that affected your career, not just picking how to react to dialogue. I was expecting people to ask you to come out drinking at a party and you had a dilemma of choosing whether to go out with your friends or call it a day for training the next day. Basically, someone says something or you get asked a question in an interview and you get three choices to respond with. The gist of each option is to reply humbly, cocky or standard responses. They didn't seem to really even matter, fiery just meant you'd get more Twitter followers and fall down the pecking order with your manager and the opposite if you responded cool.
The Journey is a welcomed addition to the FIFA series and I commend EA for trying something new as the franchise certainly needed a new feature/mode. It's only available on the newer generation of consoles, keep that in mind. Sadly, it's only one season long which gives you around forty five games to play, maybe Alex Hunter's story continues in FIFA 18 and a year of his career each new FIFA game. I didn't know the name Hunter, but I certainly do now.
7.5/10
The game has cutscenes that tell Hunters life and they look great. Powered by the Frostbite Engine, it looks real and the lip syncing is great, an odd plus for a FIFA game. There are a number of characters that show up, Hunter's family and people who pop up in his footballing life. Some of these are portrayed brilliantly, particularly Hunter's mother, Butler, the coach at your chosen team and Hunter's lifelong friend, Gareth Walker. Their performances seem so genuine and real.
The game works out as a more in depth Be A Pro, but you can also play as the whole team, which I found much more preferable. Hunter is aiming to get into the first team and an eventual starter. After the rise of fellow teammate, Walker, Hunter is then made to leave on loan to the Championship. So, you end up playing for two teams, which I didn't see coming but liked it as it made sense. Hunter is portrayed well, but it can be so hard to listen to his cringey dialogue, especially during the post-match interviews.
You get to pick which position to play as, you only get the choice of attacking positions. However, depending on what the default team is, the team you sign for may not play your position. I picked CAM and my chosen team didn't play with one, but my on loan team did, suffice to say I enjoyed being on loan, rather than playing for my favourite team. The weaker squads were always getting played too, third choice goalkeepers and the youth striker would play ahead of the star players. All the teams you played against had their star players on, which made it feel unfair. Williams was another footballing personality in the game, he featured often in cutscenes and in the social media tweets praising him and Hunter's partnership together, I think the whole time I was in the same squad as him, we played together twice. It was the same with Harry Kane, who was the big signing your team made, but he didn't feature with me once.
You can do training skills to improve your overall stats and you get punished by skipping them, you can lose your starting eleven place. I wanted to check my personal stats, like my goals and assists, but I didn't think you could. Turns out they were hidden by what I thought was an Ultimate Team advert, but after you looked at your UT rewards you could see your personal stats. I thought that Butler should've just been the manager of whatever team you chose, the real life manager features but never says anything, I know they couldn't get the real voices, but Butler acts like the manager, it just fits better. Also, when going for the league title, a random woman in a suit entered the dressing room and gave a big speech, Butler and the real manager just stood there, I had no idea who she was, she just entered, spoke and left, no one even told us who she was.
I think we were partly mis-sold, there weren't really choices. I was expecting choices that affected your career, not just picking how to react to dialogue. I was expecting people to ask you to come out drinking at a party and you had a dilemma of choosing whether to go out with your friends or call it a day for training the next day. Basically, someone says something or you get asked a question in an interview and you get three choices to respond with. The gist of each option is to reply humbly, cocky or standard responses. They didn't seem to really even matter, fiery just meant you'd get more Twitter followers and fall down the pecking order with your manager and the opposite if you responded cool.
The Journey is a welcomed addition to the FIFA series and I commend EA for trying something new as the franchise certainly needed a new feature/mode. It's only available on the newer generation of consoles, keep that in mind. Sadly, it's only one season long which gives you around forty five games to play, maybe Alex Hunter's story continues in FIFA 18 and a year of his career each new FIFA game. I didn't know the name Hunter, but I certainly do now.
7.5/10
Thursday 13 October 2016
Red Faction Guerrilla: Demons of the Badlands DLC (Xbox 360)
Welcome to my first downloadable content review, these are gonna be rated out of 5, as DLC isn't always as interesting or enjoyable as full released games, so they're harder to critique on the same level.
Demons of the Badlands is the only main DLC pack for Red Faction Guerrilla. It's sort of a prequel to the main game. You play as Sam from the main game, she said in the campaign she was a Marauder, so that's what the DLC is. Sam as a Marauder looks kind of odd, her hairs now reddish and her outfit looks ridiculous. Mariner Valley is the new area of the game and is a Marauder territory that's been infested by the EDF.
There's new vehicles and weapons, some of the weapons aren't really worth using but there are some cool new ones, the vehicles are unique and cool to drive, they're better than the Marauder vehicles that featured in the original game. There's new demolitions and transporter missions, some of these are really cool, they're more unique and can be really challenging. That's probably the best thing about this content, but they're just optional side missions you'll only do for the 100% completion
You're thrown straight into the DLC with no introduction. If I hadn't just played the main game right before I started it, I probably wouldn't even realise the main character was in the original game. Sam being able to take on the EDF made no sense, she can take the fight to them as a Marauder, but in the main game as a Red Faction member she don't do shit but hide at the safehouses. That's why they should've made a new playable character and give them a back story, other than just playing as someone we know. There's only three main missions and they're not great, that being said, they weren't great either in the main game. But only three story missions for a pricey DLC, just not worth it.
This DLC honestly just shouldn't exist, it's pointless. It doesn't add anything to the story and just makes you question why Sam wasn't around more in the story or why the Marauders didn't help the Red Faction in taking out the EDF. There's nothing to justify buying this, so save your currency for something worthwhile.
2/5
Demons of the Badlands is the only main DLC pack for Red Faction Guerrilla. It's sort of a prequel to the main game. You play as Sam from the main game, she said in the campaign she was a Marauder, so that's what the DLC is. Sam as a Marauder looks kind of odd, her hairs now reddish and her outfit looks ridiculous. Mariner Valley is the new area of the game and is a Marauder territory that's been infested by the EDF.
There's new vehicles and weapons, some of the weapons aren't really worth using but there are some cool new ones, the vehicles are unique and cool to drive, they're better than the Marauder vehicles that featured in the original game. There's new demolitions and transporter missions, some of these are really cool, they're more unique and can be really challenging. That's probably the best thing about this content, but they're just optional side missions you'll only do for the 100% completion
You're thrown straight into the DLC with no introduction. If I hadn't just played the main game right before I started it, I probably wouldn't even realise the main character was in the original game. Sam being able to take on the EDF made no sense, she can take the fight to them as a Marauder, but in the main game as a Red Faction member she don't do shit but hide at the safehouses. That's why they should've made a new playable character and give them a back story, other than just playing as someone we know. There's only three main missions and they're not great, that being said, they weren't great either in the main game. But only three story missions for a pricey DLC, just not worth it.
This DLC honestly just shouldn't exist, it's pointless. It doesn't add anything to the story and just makes you question why Sam wasn't around more in the story or why the Marauders didn't help the Red Faction in taking out the EDF. There's nothing to justify buying this, so save your currency for something worthwhile.
2/5
Monday 10 October 2016
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)
Uncharted 2 released in 2009 and is a direct sequel to the PlayStation hit Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. The game starts off immediately with a train wreck and an injured Nate, barely alive having to climb up the train as it dangles over an icy cliff. Shortly into the climb to safety, the game takes you back sometime before and are introduced to the new characters. Nate meets up with Flynn, a sarcastic, humorous type just like Nate, Chloe also so shows up, a tough and adventurous type, also like Nate! The trio set out to look for the Cintimani Stone and Shangri-la.
Along the way, Nate links up again with our favourites Sully and Elena. Sadly, Sully doesn't feature a lot in this game, but there's a lot of Elena and Chloe, they're great enough to fill the void left by Sully. Prior, you and your buddy Flynn attempt a heist to steal an oil lamp. Classic robbery, black suits and gloves, hiding from security and using takedowns and stun guns to get through stealthily. The conversations between both are so believable, they seem like real people and are hilarious together. The writers for Uncharted are brilliant and do a great job with the exposition during gameplay. It turns out they're not the only ones looking for the Cintimani Stone, Zoran Lazarevic, a Russian warlord is on the path too, armed with a military unit to aid him. Lazarevic is a much improved villian over the first one in Drake's Fortune and is portrayed excellently by Graham McTavish.
Halfway into the story, there is an excellent train sequence, where you make your way to the front, whether you are inside the carriages or on the trains roof. You're surrounded by enemies, but when you get a moment you can just watch the train go through some wonderful sights, the game takes you around the world, so sometimes you should take in the scenery, the developers did a great job and created a beautiful environment. You also get to traverse through snowy mountains, they look so real and it looks like you'd freeze to death if you were there, the game looks fantastic. Improved graphics with seemingly more facial detail and more real looking environments, much different to the grassy jungle and ruins from the first.
Gameplay is as good as ever and there's more stealth options too, it's mostly gun fights, but it's nice being able to take some enemies out quietly. Also some great new weapons dropped by the enemies, giving you more of a choice to disperse those pesky villains. I genuinely think this game shines in the moments you're just exploring and having conversations with those around you. They are always interesting, funny and develop the story. You can roll over and pick up ammo as you do it, this is extremely handy for dodging bullets and refilling your own when still surrounded. You can quick throw grenades now and even reverse enemy attacks when in hand-to-hand combat. Something that's always handy is being able to switch your shoulder aim, sometimes it's more useful to shoot from your other side.
There were some issues, not a lot. If you entered combat it was difficult to get out of, if another enemy was around and was shooting you as you were fighting, this caused a couple of deaths. As with platforming games, jumping to the wrong climbable object or even jumping to your death came naturally, one day a game will perfect jumping and climbing safely. While trying to stealth around a group of enemies, Chloe walked ahead of me and got caught, which automatically meant I was discovered too, not good when you're trying to play on hard difficulty, which is challenging enough, cheers Chloe, mate.
All in all, an improvement on what was already a stellar game. New fantastic characters and a brilliant villian, all portrayed excellently, this really is a sequel better than the original. The humor is too good, Nate's handbook that's filled with clues and information, even has funny drawings and quotes, yet the game is serious as well, it just gels perfectly. Well done Naughty Dog, you've proved countless times you can make a good game and a good series of games. Also, thanks for including the theme from the first, the music is excellent. I'm pretty sure every PlayStation gamer has played this, but play it again, it really deserves it.
9.1/10
Along the way, Nate links up again with our favourites Sully and Elena. Sadly, Sully doesn't feature a lot in this game, but there's a lot of Elena and Chloe, they're great enough to fill the void left by Sully. Prior, you and your buddy Flynn attempt a heist to steal an oil lamp. Classic robbery, black suits and gloves, hiding from security and using takedowns and stun guns to get through stealthily. The conversations between both are so believable, they seem like real people and are hilarious together. The writers for Uncharted are brilliant and do a great job with the exposition during gameplay. It turns out they're not the only ones looking for the Cintimani Stone, Zoran Lazarevic, a Russian warlord is on the path too, armed with a military unit to aid him. Lazarevic is a much improved villian over the first one in Drake's Fortune and is portrayed excellently by Graham McTavish.
Halfway into the story, there is an excellent train sequence, where you make your way to the front, whether you are inside the carriages or on the trains roof. You're surrounded by enemies, but when you get a moment you can just watch the train go through some wonderful sights, the game takes you around the world, so sometimes you should take in the scenery, the developers did a great job and created a beautiful environment. You also get to traverse through snowy mountains, they look so real and it looks like you'd freeze to death if you were there, the game looks fantastic. Improved graphics with seemingly more facial detail and more real looking environments, much different to the grassy jungle and ruins from the first.
Gameplay is as good as ever and there's more stealth options too, it's mostly gun fights, but it's nice being able to take some enemies out quietly. Also some great new weapons dropped by the enemies, giving you more of a choice to disperse those pesky villains. I genuinely think this game shines in the moments you're just exploring and having conversations with those around you. They are always interesting, funny and develop the story. You can roll over and pick up ammo as you do it, this is extremely handy for dodging bullets and refilling your own when still surrounded. You can quick throw grenades now and even reverse enemy attacks when in hand-to-hand combat. Something that's always handy is being able to switch your shoulder aim, sometimes it's more useful to shoot from your other side.
There were some issues, not a lot. If you entered combat it was difficult to get out of, if another enemy was around and was shooting you as you were fighting, this caused a couple of deaths. As with platforming games, jumping to the wrong climbable object or even jumping to your death came naturally, one day a game will perfect jumping and climbing safely. While trying to stealth around a group of enemies, Chloe walked ahead of me and got caught, which automatically meant I was discovered too, not good when you're trying to play on hard difficulty, which is challenging enough, cheers Chloe, mate.
All in all, an improvement on what was already a stellar game. New fantastic characters and a brilliant villian, all portrayed excellently, this really is a sequel better than the original. The humor is too good, Nate's handbook that's filled with clues and information, even has funny drawings and quotes, yet the game is serious as well, it just gels perfectly. Well done Naughty Dog, you've proved countless times you can make a good game and a good series of games. Also, thanks for including the theme from the first, the music is excellent. I'm pretty sure every PlayStation gamer has played this, but play it again, it really deserves it.
9.1/10
Saturday 8 October 2016
The Order: 1886 (PS4)
The Order was something I was very interested in when I first saw it. When it was first shown I was intrigued because I like Victorian England as a setting in a video game. It was originally sold to me as a monster hunting game set in VE, then I saw the futuristic weapons. This immediately made me lose interest, but then when I saw the gameplay of the fight with what I thought was a werewolf, I was right back in there with interest. Anyway, let's get started.
The Order set in London, in the late 1800s follows a small group of knights who protect the world from 'half-breeds' and also protect against the Industrial Revolution. It's a third person action game that features a substantial amount of quick time events. You're put straight into the game where you play as Galahad, a knight who is in quite the predicament. Shortly after the prologue, you are taken back some time to where the story really starts. Galahad is a very serious man, which can lead to a boring playable character. There's something off-putting about a character that has the same angry face throughout. That's just it, all the characters are serious and they're often with you. Ingraine isn't always serious, but by God she is always annoying. Marquis is by far the best, he's funny and likeable, but he's surrounded by serious folk so his humor is quickly swept under the rug. I'd much have preferred him to be the star of the game.
Now, what people will have you think, is this is an average game and incredibly short. These are lies, the game is fairly short, I'll admit. I heard someone say they finished it in four hours, this is insane. It took me around seven, short I know, but I can only imagine it was completed in four hours on the easy difficulty. Now, if you're complaining about a game being too short and completed it on easy, you have no right to moan. A disappointing factor was that a couple chapters were just cutscenes. It's a shame they decided to do this and make you think the game was longer than it actually was, with it having sixteen chapters and at least three are cutscenes and a few more are rather short. Anyway, don't let reviews tell you this game is near four hours or its average. It's gameplay is pretty good.
The graphics are exceptional, truly some of the best I've seen. The detail in the faces are incredible, facial expressions are up there with LA Noire's face scans. The performances are really good, just all a bit too serious. The scenes look great and the way they transition into the gameplay are flawless, you almost don't realise you can now move your character. When you play as Galahad near the start, he is looking over the edge of a building and his hair is blowing in the wind, it's extraordinary! Hair is an incredibly difficult thing for developers, but Ready at Dawn not only made hair blow in the wind, but made it look real. There's no denying how good they made this game look.
The gameplay here is good, nothing really new, but well done. Typical cover shooter, with some good gun play. The blacklight move allows you to kill multiple enemies at once in slow motion and move the cursor to where you wanted to hit them. It was pretty cool, but I find it difficult to really aim at enemies heads, so I just shot where the aim already was and it worked just fine. There's a good amount of weapons and lots of ammo pickups for you too. The science weapons were great, although they felt out of place in a game set in the past. One would fire thermite and then let you fire at it to blast fire, another would shoot a burst of electricity that would instantly kill anything in the way and the last had a stun mechanic, you'd fire a sort of smoke blast that would stumble the enemy, leaving them at your mercy. Another cool feature in the gun play I liked, was when you killed an enemy the cursor went red as you shot them, this was a confirmed kill, so you needn't worry about them rising up from cover.
The enemies were quite smart too, always in cover and not just idly standing by, waiting for death by science! The shot-gunner enemies charged at you and were armoured up, they were pretty challenging. There was a lock picking mechanic that hadn't been done before, sometimes you gotta ask yourself, just how many ways can game developers come up with to enter locked doorways. You could use the PS4s touchpad once to call in support, but it was pointless, but I think the whole touchpad debacle is pointless in whole.
There wasn't a lot too bad with this game, a guy's beard was see through looking at it from the side, but I got over it. The credits went on so long, the music got bored and stopped. It was quite short, BUT NOT THAT SHORT! I think the most disappointing thing was that the boss battle was just a big QTE. It looked great though, one on one with a half-breed, armed only with a knife. Also the ending left me with so many unanswered questions. *SEQUEL ALERT*.
All in all, a decent story, amazing graphics, far too serious characters, disappointing boss battle, but with the capability of Ready at Dawn, I'm certainly looking forward to what else they can do. Just hopefully it looks as great as this and is a bit longer.
7/10
The Order set in London, in the late 1800s follows a small group of knights who protect the world from 'half-breeds' and also protect against the Industrial Revolution. It's a third person action game that features a substantial amount of quick time events. You're put straight into the game where you play as Galahad, a knight who is in quite the predicament. Shortly after the prologue, you are taken back some time to where the story really starts. Galahad is a very serious man, which can lead to a boring playable character. There's something off-putting about a character that has the same angry face throughout. That's just it, all the characters are serious and they're often with you. Ingraine isn't always serious, but by God she is always annoying. Marquis is by far the best, he's funny and likeable, but he's surrounded by serious folk so his humor is quickly swept under the rug. I'd much have preferred him to be the star of the game.
Now, what people will have you think, is this is an average game and incredibly short. These are lies, the game is fairly short, I'll admit. I heard someone say they finished it in four hours, this is insane. It took me around seven, short I know, but I can only imagine it was completed in four hours on the easy difficulty. Now, if you're complaining about a game being too short and completed it on easy, you have no right to moan. A disappointing factor was that a couple chapters were just cutscenes. It's a shame they decided to do this and make you think the game was longer than it actually was, with it having sixteen chapters and at least three are cutscenes and a few more are rather short. Anyway, don't let reviews tell you this game is near four hours or its average. It's gameplay is pretty good.
The graphics are exceptional, truly some of the best I've seen. The detail in the faces are incredible, facial expressions are up there with LA Noire's face scans. The performances are really good, just all a bit too serious. The scenes look great and the way they transition into the gameplay are flawless, you almost don't realise you can now move your character. When you play as Galahad near the start, he is looking over the edge of a building and his hair is blowing in the wind, it's extraordinary! Hair is an incredibly difficult thing for developers, but Ready at Dawn not only made hair blow in the wind, but made it look real. There's no denying how good they made this game look.
The gameplay here is good, nothing really new, but well done. Typical cover shooter, with some good gun play. The blacklight move allows you to kill multiple enemies at once in slow motion and move the cursor to where you wanted to hit them. It was pretty cool, but I find it difficult to really aim at enemies heads, so I just shot where the aim already was and it worked just fine. There's a good amount of weapons and lots of ammo pickups for you too. The science weapons were great, although they felt out of place in a game set in the past. One would fire thermite and then let you fire at it to blast fire, another would shoot a burst of electricity that would instantly kill anything in the way and the last had a stun mechanic, you'd fire a sort of smoke blast that would stumble the enemy, leaving them at your mercy. Another cool feature in the gun play I liked, was when you killed an enemy the cursor went red as you shot them, this was a confirmed kill, so you needn't worry about them rising up from cover.
The enemies were quite smart too, always in cover and not just idly standing by, waiting for death by science! The shot-gunner enemies charged at you and were armoured up, they were pretty challenging. There was a lock picking mechanic that hadn't been done before, sometimes you gotta ask yourself, just how many ways can game developers come up with to enter locked doorways. You could use the PS4s touchpad once to call in support, but it was pointless, but I think the whole touchpad debacle is pointless in whole.
There wasn't a lot too bad with this game, a guy's beard was see through looking at it from the side, but I got over it. The credits went on so long, the music got bored and stopped. It was quite short, BUT NOT THAT SHORT! I think the most disappointing thing was that the boss battle was just a big QTE. It looked great though, one on one with a half-breed, armed only with a knife. Also the ending left me with so many unanswered questions. *SEQUEL ALERT*.
All in all, a decent story, amazing graphics, far too serious characters, disappointing boss battle, but with the capability of Ready at Dawn, I'm certainly looking forward to what else they can do. Just hopefully it looks as great as this and is a bit longer.
7/10
Saturday 1 October 2016
Gears of War (Xbox 360)
Gears of War is one of Xbox's biggest exclusive franchises, in my opinion this should be Xbox's promotional franchise over Halo, (sorry fanboys) it's good but I think Gears is a better series. Let's see why, shall we?
When I saw the trailer for this game, I had to get it. That eery trailer showing main character, Marcus taking on what looked like a giant spider was jaw dropping. I had to see that thing for myself! You are thrown straight into the game, on planet Sera. Dom, a fellow Gear soldier frees Marcus from prison, in an attempt to recruit him to Delta squad and fight the threat of the Locust. The Locust are a sort of reptilian-human mix, who are savage in their attempts to abolish humanity.
You play as Marcus Fenix, the very serious, angry badass. He's a tough guy and he's not someone you'd like to be up against. The rest of your squad are memorable characters too. Dom, looking for his wife, is the coop player and my personal favourite. He's just so likeable. He's serious and also has some funny remarks. Cole is the eccentric killing machine, nicknamed 'Cole-Train', he's the humouous one and then there's Bird, the sarcastic and often whiny one. All four together make a great group of characters.
GoW is a cover-to-cover shooter and it's easily one of the best around, the movement in cover is fluent and being able to vault and dive to more cover makes it safe to manouver during combat. The gun play is excellent too, you can also do a 'perfect reload', which is a manual, quicker reload. Now, the Lancer. The Lancer is one of the best weapons you will see, it's an assault rifle, with a God damn chainsaw attached. If the Locust get too close, whip out the chainsaw and make him think twice, as you split him in two! If you're not a fan of gore, then this probably won't be for you as it's easily one of the bloodiest games I've played, I think you may be able to turn the gore off.
This game is a perfect coop game, if you have a buddy to play Gears with, it'll make the game so much better. You can revive eachother if you go down and a human player means one less dumb AI to have around. I played through the whole game with a friend on the Insane difficultly and it was a challenge, but a really fun challenge.
There are some boss fights and one is probably the most memorable boss fight in recent years. The Bezerker. Holy shit was I terrified of this dude. A giant, blind reptilian creature, that charges at you if you make too much noise. Never has the term 'tread lightly' been so true. You can't shoot it with regular guns as it's practically bulletproof. The only way to kill it, is to lead it outside and use the Hammer of Dawn which is a satellite gun the reigns fire down upon thee. There's also a massive spider-type creature and also the main villian, General Raam, these two are not meant to be trifled with. But, if you're gonna want humanity to survive, you're gonna have to! There's also a lot of mini-boss Locust, like the Boomer, I can't help but love the Boomers. Mainly because they shout "Boom" as they fire their rockets at you. It's pretty funny in their monstrous voice.
There's a multiplayer mode that is very good and features many game modes and a ranking system that doesn't use experience gained in matches, I'm not really sure how it works, but I don't like the ranking. GoW is a great multiplayer game, but it requires skill to be good, unfortunately for me, I am not a good Gears player online. It feels so rewarding just when I get a kill, but that rarely ever happens.
All in all, there wasn't really many problems with the game. A confusing ranking system probably my main gripe, a couple of texture issues, but nothing major. A pain in the ass on-the-rail section, but when are they ever fun? I also didn't like how big all the characters where, normal people look like ants compared to these massive hench dudes. Everyone was very well voice acted and fitted their characters and a good, lengthy story. The game can not be missed and neither can the following games. Play this game, because for a game that's almost a decade old, it's still very much relevant.
8.4/10
When I saw the trailer for this game, I had to get it. That eery trailer showing main character, Marcus taking on what looked like a giant spider was jaw dropping. I had to see that thing for myself! You are thrown straight into the game, on planet Sera. Dom, a fellow Gear soldier frees Marcus from prison, in an attempt to recruit him to Delta squad and fight the threat of the Locust. The Locust are a sort of reptilian-human mix, who are savage in their attempts to abolish humanity.
You play as Marcus Fenix, the very serious, angry badass. He's a tough guy and he's not someone you'd like to be up against. The rest of your squad are memorable characters too. Dom, looking for his wife, is the coop player and my personal favourite. He's just so likeable. He's serious and also has some funny remarks. Cole is the eccentric killing machine, nicknamed 'Cole-Train', he's the humouous one and then there's Bird, the sarcastic and often whiny one. All four together make a great group of characters.
GoW is a cover-to-cover shooter and it's easily one of the best around, the movement in cover is fluent and being able to vault and dive to more cover makes it safe to manouver during combat. The gun play is excellent too, you can also do a 'perfect reload', which is a manual, quicker reload. Now, the Lancer. The Lancer is one of the best weapons you will see, it's an assault rifle, with a God damn chainsaw attached. If the Locust get too close, whip out the chainsaw and make him think twice, as you split him in two! If you're not a fan of gore, then this probably won't be for you as it's easily one of the bloodiest games I've played, I think you may be able to turn the gore off.
This game is a perfect coop game, if you have a buddy to play Gears with, it'll make the game so much better. You can revive eachother if you go down and a human player means one less dumb AI to have around. I played through the whole game with a friend on the Insane difficultly and it was a challenge, but a really fun challenge.
There are some boss fights and one is probably the most memorable boss fight in recent years. The Bezerker. Holy shit was I terrified of this dude. A giant, blind reptilian creature, that charges at you if you make too much noise. Never has the term 'tread lightly' been so true. You can't shoot it with regular guns as it's practically bulletproof. The only way to kill it, is to lead it outside and use the Hammer of Dawn which is a satellite gun the reigns fire down upon thee. There's also a massive spider-type creature and also the main villian, General Raam, these two are not meant to be trifled with. But, if you're gonna want humanity to survive, you're gonna have to! There's also a lot of mini-boss Locust, like the Boomer, I can't help but love the Boomers. Mainly because they shout "Boom" as they fire their rockets at you. It's pretty funny in their monstrous voice.
There's a multiplayer mode that is very good and features many game modes and a ranking system that doesn't use experience gained in matches, I'm not really sure how it works, but I don't like the ranking. GoW is a great multiplayer game, but it requires skill to be good, unfortunately for me, I am not a good Gears player online. It feels so rewarding just when I get a kill, but that rarely ever happens.
All in all, there wasn't really many problems with the game. A confusing ranking system probably my main gripe, a couple of texture issues, but nothing major. A pain in the ass on-the-rail section, but when are they ever fun? I also didn't like how big all the characters where, normal people look like ants compared to these massive hench dudes. Everyone was very well voice acted and fitted their characters and a good, lengthy story. The game can not be missed and neither can the following games. Play this game, because for a game that's almost a decade old, it's still very much relevant.
8.4/10
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